1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the fields of molecular biology and toxicology. More particularly, it concerns methods of generating modified proteins that are shorter and/or less antigenic polypeptides, as well as compositions comprising such polypeptides. Shorter and less antigenic versions of the plant toxin gelonin are described herein. Such modified proteins have therapeutic and diagnostic uses, for example, as immunotoxins.
2. Description of Related Art
Peptides, polypeptides, and proteins have numerous preventative, diagnostic, and therapeutic benefits. One disadvantage, however, is that such proteinaceous compounds may elicit an immune response to the compounds in the subject who hopes to receive their benefit. An immune response to the compounds can reduce, or altogether eliminate, the benefits that can be achieved through their use. Thus, it is a general desire to decrease the antigenicity or immunogenicity of a compound whose efficacy may be reduced by its eliciting an immune response in the host.
One specific type of protein, monoclonal antibodies, have been the focus of much research and development for preventative, diagnostic, and therapeutic benefits. Highly specific immunotoxins recognizing a variety of cell-surface antigens have been developed and tested over the last two decades. The attractive feature of immunotoxins is that these potent agents require very few molecules to be successfully delivered to the correct intracellular compartment in order to elicit a cytotoxic effect. Immunotoxins have been constructed containing various toxins such as saponin, abrin, ricin A chain (RTA), pseudomonas exotoxin (PE), diptheria toxin (DT), and gelonin.
Problems associated with the in vivo use of immunotoxins generally include: vascular damage leading to a capillary leak syndrome, mistargeting due to recognition of the toxin portion by the reticuloendothelial system, heterogeneity of target antigen expression, and development of anti-toxin antibodies leading to a narrowed therapy window of approximately 14 days. The development of anti-toxin and anti-conjugate antibodies may also prevent retreatment of patients despite evidence of antitumor effect. Prolonged use of immunotoxins in patients has provoked problems as well. Immunoconjugates containing RTA and PE have been found to be highly immunogenic in patients. In addition, the size of these proteins in immunotoxin constructs (approximately 30 kDa) is suspected to prevent effective penetration of immunoconjugates into solid tumors. The structural modification of Type I proteins such as RTA has, for the most part, been unsuccessful (Munishkin et al., 1995). Numerous RTA mutants modifying several amino acids have been generated. In 1995, Wool et al. described 45 single amino acids deletions of RTA. Of those, only 8 single amino acid deletions were shown to have biological activity although the relative the relative biological activities of these deletion mutants compared to native RTA have not been examined. While interesting, the studies examining RTA are of limited value since, for example, RTA has only 30% sequence homology with other toxins such as gelonin.
Specific applications of monoclonal antibody (MAb)-based procedures have traditionally been found in the diagnosis and therapy of human cancers. However, clinical use of these agents has met with limited success due to drawbacks associated with this approach, e.g. heterogeneity of antigen expression, poor tumor penetration into solid tumors due in part to antibody size, and antigenicity of the antibodies (Roselli et al., 1993; Berkower, 1996; Pullybland et al., 1997; Panchagnula et al., 1997; Panchal, 1998). To circumvent these problems, a number of molecular approaches have been applied to reconfigure the conventional antibody structure into mouse:human chimeras, completely human antibodies or reshaped antibody fragments containing the antigen-binding portions of the original structure in a smaller and simpler (single-chain) format (Bird et al., 1988; Kipriyanov et al., 1994; Owens et al., 1994; McCartney et al, 1995; Worn et al., 1998). Single-chain antibodies (scfv, sfv), retaining the binding characteristics of the parent immunoglobulin (IgG), consist of the antibody VL and VH domains linked by a designed flexible peptide linker (Wels et al., 1992; Kurucz et al., 1993). Furthermore, scFvs may be preferred in clinical and diagnostic applications currently involving conventional MAbs or Fab fragments thereof, since their smaller size may allow better penetration of tumor tissue, improved pharmacokinetics, and a reduction in the immunogenicity observed with intravenously administered murine antibodies.
Among the few target antigens that are expressed at high levels in melanoma cells compared to normal tissue is the surface domain of a high molecular weight glycoprotein (gp240) found on a majority of melanoma cell lines and fresh tumor samples (Kantor et al., 1982). Two murine antibodies (designated 9.2.27 and ZME-018) recognizing different epitopes on this antigen have been previously isolated and described (Morgan et al., 1981; Wilson et al., 1981). The murine monoclonal antibody ZME-018 possesses high specificity for melanoma and is minimally reactive with a variety of normal tissues, making it a promising candidate for further study. Clinical trials examining the ability of this antibody to localize within melanoma lesions have demonstrated selective concentration in metastatic tumors (Macey et al., 1988; Koizumi et al., 1988).
Successful development of tumor-targeted therapeutic agents is dependent, in part, on the site-specific delivery of therapeutic agents and also on the biological activity of the delivered agent. Monoclonal antibodies have been employed to impart selectivity to otherwise indiscriminately cytotoxic agents such as toxins, radioneuclides, and growth factors (Williams et al., 1990; Rowlinson-Busza et al., 1992; Wahl, 1994). One such molecule is gelonin, a 29-kDa ribosome-inactivating plant toxin with a potency and mechanism of action similar to ricin A-chain (RTA) but with improved stability and reduced toxicity (Stirpe et al., 1992; Rosenblum et al., 1995). Previous studies in our lab have identified and examined the biological properties of numerous chemical conjugates of the plant toxin gelonin and various antibodies (Boyle et al., 1995; Xu et al., 1996; Rosenblum et al., 1999). In previous studies, antibody ZME-018 was chemically coupled to purified gelonin, and this immunoconjugate demonstrated specific cytotoxicity against antigen-positive melanoma cells both in tissue culture and in human tumor xenograft models (Rosenblum et al., 1991; Mujoo et al., 1995). However, this construct, like immunotoxins generally, has inherent problems of antigenicity in human patients.
Given the side effects of immunotoxins and the limited progress made in reducing these problems, there is a continued need for the development of less antigenic proteins, polypeptides, and peptides for use in the treatment, prevention, and diagnosis of diseases and conditions. Replacement of antigenic sequences in the toxin molecule is a concept with respect to non-antibody polypeptides, such as toxins. While this concept has been used successfully with replacement of murine immunoglobulin framework domains with those of human immunoglobin framework domains creating a human/mouse chimeric molecule, the same concept has never been successfully applied to other molecules particularly toxins or enzymes from plant sources, or by using the methods described herein.